Pet Detective

For eight long months, ex-lawman Steve Dobbie has matched wits with a Santa Fe, N.M., escape artist whose spirit, tactical instincts and sheer will to remain free have repeatedly left him shaking his head in respect. Dobbie's quarry isn't human – he's a stray dog named Pepper. But Dobbie still experienced the thrill of fist-pumping victory when he finally got his man, er, dog, after some 240 days of sheer frustration and near-misses. "During his time on the streets, a day didn't go by when I didn't increase my respect and admiration for that dog," Dobbie told the Los Angeles Times . "He's wily, tenacious and smart.

For eight long months, ex-lawman Steve Dobbie has matched wits with a Santa Fe, N.M., escape artist whose spirit, tactical instincts and sheer will to remain free have repeatedly left him shaking his head in respect. Dobbie's quarry isn't human – he's a stray dog named Pepper. But Dobbie still experienced the thrill of fist-pumping victory when he finally got his man, er, dog, after some 240 days of sheer frustration and near-misses. "During his time on the streets, a day didn't go by when I didn't increase my respect and admiration for that dog," Dobbie told the Los Angeles Times . "He's wily, tenacious and smart.

With the metabolism of a hummingbird, the altitude of a giraffe and the manners of a crazed baboon, Jim Carrey returns as the famously zany pet detective in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls.In this sequel to last year's surprise gross-out hit, our hyperkinetic hero is practically an animal himself. Racing through the film like a hungry dog in search of meat, he's a creature entirely of instincts and urges.For Ace, that can mean anything from vomiting food into the waiting mouth of a little bird to sounding a Tarzan yell from his backside.

SAY CHEESE Think your pet has what it takes to compete? Send photos of your cutie to Orlando Update, a Web site informing residents of recent happenings. Sponsored by Pet Republic and Mobile Day Grooming, the pet photo contest is accepting e-mailed photographs until the second week of June. There will be one winner in each of the categories, which include best cat, best dog, best exotic pet and best bird. Orlando Update subscribers will judge photos, and winners will receive prizes such as a $25 gift certificate to Pet Republic and a free dog grooming at Mobile Dog Grooming.

Compared with Jim Carrey, just about anyone looks like a straight man, even comedy director Tom Shadyac. The pair, who first collaborated on the runaway hit Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, are behind a new film, Liar Liar. Carrey plays Fletcher Reede, an unctuous lawyer whose life is turned upside-down when it becomes impossible for him to tell a lie for an entire day. (Last weekend, the movie earned an estimated $32 million for Hollywood's top March film debut ever.)With his unruly, shoulder-length hair and wire-rim glasses, Shadyac, 38, looks less like a comic innovator than a sober-minded grad student.

Here is a wrap-up of the end-of-the-year films that already have opened and been reviewed by Sentinel movie critic Jay Boyar.*** Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (91 minutes, PG-13)With the metabolism of a hummingbird, the altitude of a giraffe and the manners of a crazed baboon, Jim Carrey returns as the famously zany pet detective in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls.In this sequel to last year's surprise gross-out hit, our hyperkinetic hero is practically an animal himself. Racing through the film like a hungry dog in search of meat, he's a creature entirely of instincts and urges.

With the metabolism of a hummingbird, the altitude of a giraffe and the manners of a crazed baboon, Jim Carrey returns as the famously zany pet detective in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls.In this sequel to last year's surprise gross-out hit, our hyperkinetic hero is practically an animal himself. Racing through the film like a hungry dog in search of meat, he's a creature entirely of instincts and urges.For Ace, that can mean anything from vomiting food into the waiting mouth of a little bird to sounding a Tarzan yell from his backside.

Disney-MGM Studios is feverishly pulling together a stage show to premier Friday in hopes of capitalizing on one of the country's hottest pop-culture phenoms: Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.The plan is to debut five daily street shows Friday when the Jim Carrey sequel, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, premieres nationwide.Assuming Disney can find a few more zany, high-energy Carrey look-alikes soon, the shows will feature Ventura screeching down New York Street in his beat-up car in search of a missing exotic animal, which turns up at his pet detective office.

Newlyweds Christie Brinkley and Rick Taubman are already expecting. Billy Joel's supermodel ex, who skied into wedded bliss Thursday at 12,000 feet in Telluride, Colo., is awaiting a spring arrival from the stork. Brinkley has an 8-year-old daughter. Taubman has an 8-year-old son.Samms has a blast being naughty on 'Models Inc.'Devious, manipulative, cunning, intelligent. That's actress Emma Samms on Fox's Models Inc. ''It's the kind of role everyone always wishes for,'' she said in the Jan. 10 issue of Soap Opera Update.